2007

Thursday 3 May: Madeleine disappears from a holiday apartment at the Ocean Club resort in the Algarve village of Praia da Luz, while her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, dine with friends at a nearby tapas restaurant.

Friday 4 May: The McCanns make an emotional plea for Madeleine's safe return, directly appealing to their daughter's abductors and speaking of their "anguish and despair".

Wednesday 9 May: A Norwegian tourist, Marie Olli, says she believes she saw Madeleine at a Moroccan petrol station asking a man: "Can I see mummy soon?" On the same day, a British man reports seeing a girl matching her description near the Ibis hotel in Marrakech.

Monday 14 May: Police launch a search at the Portuguese home of a British expatriate, Robert Murat, 100 yards from where Madeleine disappeared. He is questioned, but not formally arrested.

Tuesday 15 May: Police class Murat as an "arguido", or someone who has not been arrested or charged but is being treated by police as more than a witness. He claims he is being made a scapegoat in the investigation.

Saturday 18 May: The McCanns mark Madeleine's fourth birthday by calling for people to redouble their efforts to find her.

Thursday 24 May: Madeleine's family release what is believed to be the last photograph taken of her before she disappeared.

Friday 25 May: In their first interviews, the McCanns say the "guilt" of not being with Madeleine will never leave them. Police release a description of the man seen carrying a child on the night of Madeleine's disappearance.

Wednesday 6 June: Madeleine's parents deny any involvement in her abduction when questioned by a German journalist at a press conference in Berlin.

Saturday 16 June: A British couple report seeing a small blonde girl in the Maltese capital, Valletta. A full-scale investigation is launched in the wake of a number of other possible sightings.

Sunday 17 June: Portuguese police say Madeleine's friends and family may have unwittingly destroyed vital evidence in the first few hours after her presumed abduction, during their search for her.

Thursday 28 June: Spanish police arrest an Italian man and a Portuguese woman suspected of trying to extort money from Madeleine's parents by offering them information about the missing girl.

Friday 6 July: Dutch police reveal they have arrested a man in Eindhoven suspected of attempting to defraud Gerry and Kate McCann by demanding €2m (£1.35m) for information on her whereabouts.

Friday 3 August: A child therapist says she is "100% sure" she saw the girl at a restaurant in the Belgian town of Tongeren, near the Dutch border, on July 28.

Saturday 4 August: Police launch a second search of Murat's house. No new evidence is found.

Saturday 11 August: On the 100th day of Madeleine's disappearance, police acknowledge publicly for the first time that Madeleine could be dead.

Sunday 12 August: Kate McCann tells Woman's Own magazine that she would rather know her daughter was dead than live in limbo forever.

Wednesday 15 August: Blood traces found in the bedroom where Madeleine was sleeping the night she was snatched were not hers, the Times reports. Forensic results show the blood came from a man, it adds.

Tuesday 21 August: Two women report seeing a youngster matching Madeleine's description with a man at a petrol station near Cartagena, in the south-east of Spain.

Saturday 25 August: Gerry McCann says he will be returning to work but insists his daughter may still be alive.

Friday 31 August: The McCanns are to launch a libel action against a Portuguese newspaper that claimed police believe they killed their daughter, it emerges. The action will be against the Tal & Qual paper, based in Oporto.

Thursday 6 September: Kate McCann arrives at a Portuguese police station to face further questioning by detectives.

Monday 10 September: Portuguese police sources suggest that DNA tests prove Madeleine's body had been in the boot of a car hired by her parents 25 days after she disappeared. Some DNA experts doubt the claims.

Tuesday 11 September: A dossier outlining the police case against the McCanns is passed to the local prosecutor, Joao Cunha de Magalhaes, who then asks a judge to assess the information.

Tuesday 18 September: Clarence Mitchell, a former BBC reporter, confirms he has resigned as the head of the government's media monitoring unit to become the spokesman for the McCann family. His salary is paid by a Cheshire businessman, Brian Kennedy.

Wednesday 19 September: The Evora district attorney general, Luis Bilro Verao, rules there is not enough evidence to justify further questioning of the McCanns about the disappearance of their daughter.

Thursday 4 October: The second in command in the Portuguese inquiry, Chief Inspector Tavares Almeida, requests an extended leave of absence.

Monday 8 October: Paulo Rebelo, a deputy national director in the Portuguese police, is placed in charge of the investigation.

Thursday 25 October: The McCanns hire a Spanish detective agency to run a 24-hour confidential telephone line in the hope that new information may yet be forthcoming. It is targeted at Spain, Portugal and Morocco, countries they believe may hold leads about Madeleine.

Tuesday 30 October: The McCanns use part of the £1m fund set up to help find Madeleine to make two mortgage payments on their home in Leicestershire.

Thursday 1 November: Gerry McCann returns to work, almost six months after his daughter went missing.

Friday 16 November: Jane Tanner, one of the McCann family's closest friends and part of the so-called Tapas Seven, says she saw a man carrying a sleeping child away from the holiday apartments 45 minutes before Kate McCann discovered her daughter was missing.

2008

Tuesday 8 January: The McCanns' spokesman says the family spoke to the entertainment and media company IMG before Christmas about turning the story of Madeleine's disappearance into a film. The talks were held amid concern that £1.2m fund dedicated to finding the four-year-old was rapidly running out.

Wednesday 13 February: Portuguese authorities say the search for Madeleine is winding down, more than nine months after she vanished.

Wednesday 30 April: Kate McCann reveals how the couple had considered taking their children with them to eat at the restaurant. She also recounts how she often imagines how Madeleine would look now, aged nearly five.

Thursday 1 May: The McCanns insist they still believe their daughter is still alive.

Thursday 3 May: The first anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance is marked by a renewed appeal for information and church services in Portugal and the UK.

Monday 7 July: Leicestershire police agree to share with the McCanns 81 pieces of information from their investigation. The McCanns ask to have access to Portuguese police files, too.

Tuesday 15 July: Murat wins about £600,000 in damages from 11 British newspapers and Sky News for defamatory reports of his involvement in the disappearance.

Thursday 24 July: A book by the former head of the investigation, Amaral, is published claiming that Madeleine died in her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.

Monday 4 August: The Portuguese police file on the disappearance is made public. It shows that, days before the McCanns were formally named as suspects, a British scientist had warned that tests on DNA recovered from the family's hire car had been inconclusive. It also shows that during a subsequent interview with Portuguese police, Kate McCann refused to answer 48 questions about her daughter, apparently fearing they were intended to implicate her in the girl's disappearance.

Sunday 3 May: Retired detective inspector Dave Edgar, who is now leading the family's search, says: "There's someone local, lives locally, has the answer to this, and not, you know, much wider than 10 to 15km from Praia da Luz."

Thursday 7 May: Channel 4 film shows an artist's impression of a man seen several times outside the McCann family apartment in Praia da Luz.

Sunday 17 May: McCanns announce they are to sue Amaral over claims made in his book that Madeleine died in her family's apartment and the parents were involved in hiding the body.